EDITORIAL: A town-gown agenda for Lafayette's next president

Lafayette College’s next president, Middlebury College professor Alison Byerly, represents a new way of thinking about things on College Hill. Her administrative and teaching background — coupled with an emphasis on digital technology and rethinking the role of the liberal arts in a changing global landscape — should help the college grow academically. And it isn’t lost on anyone that Lafayette — an all-male institution until 1970 — has crossed another threshold in selecting a woman to lead it. We look forward to the day when these “firsts” cease to be newsworthy.

We welcome Byerly, who will succeed President Daniel Weiss on July 1. The college has made inroads in town-gown relations under Weiss and his predecessor, Arthur Rothkopf. We hope these continue.

The college faces challenges. While many alumni are looking forward to the lifting of the ban on athletic scholarships in the Patriot League, the school still has serious issues with a social atmosphere that promotes drinking to excess. Weiss attempted to deal with the party atmosphere by supporting the Amethyst Initiative (lowering the drinking age, among other ideas) and trying to create a place for 21-and-over students to drink responsibly. The lack of progress on this front was demonstrated tragically when a college freshman died of alcohol poisoning last May.

As a provost and vice president at Middlebury, Byerly has experience dealing with faculty issues and with shared projects in the town of Middlebury.

Among the town-gown issues that need attention here:

Continuing to nurture a connection with Easton’s arts community and following up on improvements to college-owned properties along North Third Street.

Respecting the neighbors. Even though the college has worked to relocate many students from apartments to campus housing, drinking and carousing still boil over into residential areas. Parking is a headache.

Partnership with the city and encouraging interaction with merchants. Lafayette has lowered the social wall that once existed between the hill and the downtown, and it has contributed in tangible ways, such as financially supporting the Bachmann Publick House, the Ambassadors program and underwriting public improvements. The college has steadfastly resisted any consideration of a payment in lieu of taxes to the city — as Lehigh University and Moravian College did recently, when solicited by the mayor of Bethlehem. Rather than dwell on that, it’s important to seek out the cooperative work the college and its host can engage in and look for ways to improve relations and create stable neighborhoods.

Just as Byerly has given scholarly attention to the challenges of innovation to institutions — the relevance of the humanities in a digital age, the importance of technology to higher education and the rise of online offerings — we hope she will go beyond her predecessors in reaching out to the Easton area, to understand how the college’s interests are intertwined with its neighboring community. And act on it. Getting students involved in the city and helping Easton to grow as a diverse place — rather than just a town with a college attached or vice versa — should be an academic as well as a practical pursuit.